Orbital launches | |
---|---|
First | 31 January |
Last | 22 December |
Total | 50 |
Successes | 28 |
Failures | 20 |
Partial failures | 2 |
Catalogued | 36 |
National firsts | |
Spaceflight | Italy |
Space traveller | Soviet Union United States |
Rockets | |
Maiden flights | Atlas LV-3A Agena-B Kosmos-2I 63S1 Saturn I (suborbital test) |
Retirements | Atlas LV-3A Agena-A Juno II |
Crewed flights | |
Orbital | 2 |
Suborbital | 2 |
Total travellers | 4 |
Date (GMT) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
19 May | Venera 1 | First flyby of Venus | Spacecraft was already non-functional as communication had been lost en route, closest approach: 100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi)[1] |
Date/Time (UTC) | Source object | Event type | Pieces tracked | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|
29 June[2] | Thor-Able upper stage of Transit 4A navigation satellite | Rocket explosion | 294[2] | First explosion of a rocket stage in orbit creating hundreds of debris pieces |
| ||||||
Orbital launch attempts by country in 1961 |
Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Soviet Union | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | |
United States | 41 | 23 | 16 | 2 |
Rocket | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atlas LV-3A Agena-A | United States | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Retired |
Atlas LV-3A Agena-B | United States | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | Maiden flight |
Atlas LV-3B | United States | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | First orbital launch |
RM-90 Blue Scout II | United States | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | First orbital launch |
Juno II | United States | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Retired |
Kosmos-2I 63S1 | Soviet Union | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Maiden flight |
Molniya 8K78 | Soviet Union | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
Scout X-1 | United States | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
Thor DM-21 Ablestar | United States | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | |
Thor DM-21 Agena-B | United States | 17 | 11 | 6 | 0 | |
Thor DM-19 Delta | United States | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
Vostok-K 8K72K | Soviet Union | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
Orbital regime | Launches | Achieved | Not Achieved | Accidentally Achieved | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Low Earth | 41 | 28 | 13 | 3 | |
Medium Earth | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
High Earth | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | Including Highly elliptical orbits |
Heliocentric | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Two hours after separating from the U.S. Transit 4-A satellite, its Able Star upper stage becomes the first known artificial object to break up unintentionally in space. The cause of the explosion is unknown. The event produces at least 294 trackable pieces, more than tripling the number of known satellites of Earth.